somersault

Mardel (@Mardel_Inc) retail chain has 35 stores in 7 states. Its store in Oklahoma City, OK is now “one of the first Christian bookstores that has a newly-installed Espresso Book Machine® (EBM), technology that offers patrons instant access to more than 8 million titles printed in any language, and allows area Oklahoma authors to self-publish their work on-site.”

“Now people have a source to print-on-demand all types of books in any language and genres, and to publish their own professional or personal writings,” said Kevin McDonell, merchandise manager of Mardel.

The EBM is “the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. With the push of a button, any book from EspressNet®, On Demand Books’ (@espressobook) digital catalog of content, can be printed, bound and trimmed, creating a paperback book that is virtually indistinguishable from the publisher’s version.“

Read the news release (pdf).

Last November, Baker Publishing Group (@ReadBakerBooks) became the first major Christian publisher  to make available almost its entire paperback list to the EBM network.

Read the news release (pdf).

Espresso Book Machine location list.

In other digital news, Publishers Weekly reports:

Zondervan (@Zondervan), the evangelical Christian publishing division of HarperCollins, has begun a new direct-to-digital imprint. Zondervan First (@ZondervanFirst) launches with the acquisition of a historical fiction title, Love in Three-Quarter Time by Dina Sleiman. The digital titles will be produced with editorial and marketing support from Zondervan.

Zondervan First will initially focus on fiction but will eventually include all the categories the company currently publishes. Submissions will be accepted for fiction, non-fiction, and Bible material suitable for kids, teens, and adults in addition to manuscripts geared for curriculum, church resources, academic, and reference books.

Zondervan First will not pay an advance, but authors will receive a 25% royalty from the first book sold. After an ebook sells 10,000 net copies, the author's royalty rate rises to 50%.

Read the news release.

And Alive Communications literary agency for Christian and inspirational titles has launched “a sister epublishing company, Bondfire Books (@BondfireBooks).“

“We aim to be a game changer by working with other literary agencies and paying all authors a 50% net royalty, essentially double the industry standard of 25%. We will also offer 5-year renewable terms instead of the normal life of copyright,” says Rick Christian (@RicklyChristian), founder of Bondfire Books and Alive Communications.

Read the news release.

Somersault (@smrsault) is here to help publishers and other content creators communicate their messages digitally and in print.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Perfect insight on today’s fast-changing publishing scene! :)

(Cartoon copyright © Harry Bliss. Used by permission of Pippin Properties, Inc..)

If you’ve ever pondered the cryptic acronyms and abstruse language found in the arcane world of publishing, VP of sales at Weldon Owen (@WeldonOwen), Amy Kaneko (@amykaneko), strips away the conspiratorial subterfuge to enlighten the uninitiated. She does so by parsing an innocuous email message she innocently sent to a colleague one day:

Hi ________,

I heard from the account. They saw the ARC and think it could be part of a coop opportunity for an endcap or MOD. Not for POG or WIGIG. Or we could put in a dump. They still want to see the dummy though. Of course we have to watch out, these guys might screw up the laydown and of course there is always the chance that they'll come back in a gaylord, then we'll have to remainder. I checked the stock and found we're OS! I can't sell what I don't have!

What!?

Read this in full.

(Above image is Kryptos, the coded sculpture in the CIA’s Langley, VA courtyard.)

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you decipher the intricacies of publishing.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Alexandria, VA has moved up one level this year to first place in Amazon.com’s (@amazon) annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America. The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle (@AmazonKindle) format since June 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents. The Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:

1.   Alexandria, VA               11.  Pittsburgh, PA

2.   Cambridge, MA             12.  Knoxville, TN

3.   Berkeley, CA                  13.  Seattle, WA

4.   Ann Arbor, MI                  14.  Orlando, FL

5.   Boulder, CO                    15.  Columbia, SC

6.   Miami, FL                        16.  Bellevue, WA

7.   Arlington, VA                   17.  Cincinnati, OH

8.   Gainesville, FL                18.  St. Louis, MO

9.   Washington, DC             19.  Atlanta, GA

10. Salt Lake City, UT          20.  Richmond, VA

Read the news release in full.

See last year’s listing.

The above list differs from the one compiled by Central Connecticut State University (@CCSUToday) which names Washington, DC number one. Here’s the top ten list:

1.  Washington, DC               6.   Pittsburgh, PA

2.  Seattle, WA                      7.   Cincinnati, OH

3.  Minneapolis, MN              8.   St. Louis, MO

4.  Atlanta, GA                       9.   San Francisco, CA

5.  Boston, MA                     10. Denver, CO

Read this in full.

See last year's listing.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach readers.

And if you love books like we do, be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Newsweek (@Newsweek) created this poster in 2010, but it’s still interesting.

The above Infographic is by Weldon Owen (@WeldonOwen).

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you publish a book the right way. J

And be sure to bookmark, use daily, and tell others about the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to an analysis by Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) editorial director Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) of a new study from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), some 25% of all people who read ebooks are now reading on tablets (as opposed to dedicated e-readers), up from under 20% at the end of 2011.

An industry insider says, as tablets put pressure on sales of dedicated e-readers, prices of the e-ink devices could drop until they hit zero.

Read this in full.

The late Edward Rondthaler was a typographist, a simplified spelling champion, and chairman of the American Literacy Council. When he was 102 years old, he recorded this video showing the challenge of properly spelling English. Enjoy.

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

PBS MediaShift’s (@PBSMediaShift) Barbara E. Hernandez (@bhern) explains some alternatives to Amazon’s ebook self-publishing service.

In the ebook market, Amazon.com is the biggest name in the game. But, as criticism mounts — especially from people who believe that Amazon, and specifically, it's KDP Select Program, can hurt rather than help writers — alternatives like Smashwords (@Smashwords & @markcoker) are on the rise.

But can an independent author afford to bypass Amazon, especially when it provides so much exposure to self-published ebooks? So far, the answer isn't a clear one.

Most of Amazon's criticism comes because of the KDP Select program. For most authors at the Kindle Store, books are usually split between two prices — 99 cents and $2.99. At $2.99, Amazon's take is only 30% with 70% going to the author. At $2.98 and below, the author's take is only 35%.

But the KDP program offers more visibility on Amazon if authors agree to give their book away for free for five days during a 90-day period. The author must also sell exclusively at the Kindle store for those 90 days. While the subject is a hot topic on the Kindle boards, many authors are already a part of the program in hopes of getting momentum and their title climbing the Kindle charts.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) editorial director Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) postulates on what the Microsoft/B&N deal could mean to book publishing:

Imagine a Windows-powered Nook Tablet (@nookBN) that breaks the iOS and Android stranglehold on the mobile device market.

Imagine turning a PowerPoint slide deck into an enhanced ebook and distributing it to a dozen e-booksellers with the press of a button.

Imagine a book discovery engine built into every version of Internet Explorer and connected to one of the world’s leading e-bookstores.

These are the dreams that book industry players were having last night as the news sunk in of a sweeping new partnership between tech giant Microsoft and the second-leading US e-bookseller, Barnes & Noble.

Read this in full.

In “B&N and Microsoft: Why It's Not About Ebooks,” Joe Wikert (@jwikert), general manager, publisher, and chair of the Tools of Change conference (@toc) says, “Success in this venture will not be measured by sales of ebooks. Microsoft should instead use this as an opportunity to create an end-to-end consumer experience that rivals Apple's and has the advertising income potential to make Google jealous.”

Read this in full.

It makes sense that B&N wants to keep improving its Nook Tablet. According to a new BISG (@BISG) study, dedicated e-readers are losing their hold, paving the way for publishers to introduce richer ebook content on multi-function tablet devices.

In another B&N development, Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) reports on GigaOM (@gigaom) that the Nook will soon be used for more than reading ebooks.

On the heels of yesterday’s news that Microsoft is investing $300 million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook and college businesses, B&N CEO William Lynch says that the company plans to embed NFC (near field communication) chips into Nooks. Users could take their Nook into a Barnes & Noble store and wave it near a print book to get info on it or buy it.

That could help someone gain quick information on their Nook about a book, making it easy to go from browsing to buying. Consumers could also choose to just buy a printed book in the store with the additional information gleaned from the Nook. The model would help ensure that showrooming leads to sales through Barnes & Noble, whether users ultimately purchase a print or ebook, instead of sending them online and possibly Amazon.

Read this in full.

In these fast-changing times, contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.